Let’s just be honest here. These days, a college education ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Unless you’re going to be a doctor, attorney, or engineer, college isn’t really a requirement. Now, before you shoot me down and say something like, “You can’t get a job without a degree,” hear me out.
Here’s what no one tells you. When you graduate college, you usually start in an entry-level position. They know you have limited experience, and limited experience starts at the bottom. Folks with college degrees often have knowledge, but rarely have experience. Experience is what earns you money.
You can gain experience and knowledge without going to college. You can show up to the same interview with fewer degrees, but more energy and enthusiasm and oftentimes beat out the college grad. Here’s how: while the college grad is asking for big, undeserved salary bucks, you could go in, work for half the price, do twice the work and parlay that experience into a promotion or a better job.
The difference is, you don’t have $50,000+ in student loan debt. That means you working at half the salary, but none of the debt works out to be about the same cost of living anyway.
When I was 24, I worked for a mortgage company. I was making around $125,000 annually. I got the job without a college degree. Hell, I didn’t even have a high school diploma. Meanwhile, my friends were graduating college, managing $50K in debt and starting out in $40,000 per year salaried jobs. They were driving the same cars from high school and I had a fleet of whips. I took that experience and got an even better job at another mortgage company with higher commission splits.
No degree needed.
The first step in becoming rich is hitting the six-figure income annually mark. Most “jobs” you land once you graduate college don’t pay $100K annually. Especially if you did something foolish like got an art major. Let’s be real, I’ve never seen a high-paying job posting that said “Art Major Required.” If you’re going to hit six figures annually, you’ve got to get in sales.
When I mentioned “mortgage company” above, you probably thought that’s not a sales job and you were wrong. The mortgage company did not pay me a salary. I had to sell my own financing and I only got paid for what I produced. It took 1-2 deals a month to earn $5-8,000 each month. It was actually way easier than I assumed going in.
It was easy because I had sales skills.
Instead of paying for college, I paid for books, courses, audios and seminars created by millionaires. I read more books in 2004 than most will read in their entire lifetime. I got an education in sales, marketing and business that no college could teach. I knew if I was going to make the mortgage business thing work for me, I had to educate and experiment with what I had learned.
When you’re graduating high school and trying to decide what college to go dump your life savings into, here’s another option. Why not go out and buy $1,000 worth of books, online courses and other resources. Figure out what it is you want to do in life, buy courses on how to do it, and do it!
If you break it down, most jobs revolve around sales. Sure, they may call you a “marketing rep” or a “promotions consultant,” but essentially you’re in sales. Go out and buy a few courses on sales. Increase your sales talent and I promise you, you’ll earn a six-figure income quickly.
Every company on the planet can use a good salesperson. When you develop skills as a Closer, you will be offered more jobs than you could ever take on. Most folks are afraid of sales. When employers see that you’re not afraid to sell to strangers, they’ll give you the job. Take what you learned from the books and courses, apply it to the job you’re doing and “BAM” there’s your six figures.
It’s really not hard to earn $100,000 annually. There are many sales jobs out there that offer you almost instant pay and an easy route to hitting six figures. Let’s do some math here: $100,000 in 12 months = $274/day.
Less than $300/day and you’re at six figures.
Do you like cars? Let’s say you go into automotive sales. At most dealerships, there’s this thing called a “mini.” It means the minimum commission earned. Most “minis” pay around $200. That means the least you could make per car is $200. So you’d only have to sell around 35 cars each month to earn well over $100,000—and that’s by earning the minimum.
Do you like houses? Let’s say you become a real estate agent. Most agents charge 6% in commissions. That’s 6% of the sales price of the home, paid to the agent. Most agents have to split that 6% into 3 and 3; so, the minimum an agent can make on a home sale is 3% of the sales price. figure in 1% for broker fees and we’ll say the minimum an agent makes on a deal is 2% of sale price. If you sold a $200,000 home, which is average, you’d make $4,000 take home minimum. Sell two homes each month, at minimum price and pay, and there’s an easy $100,000.
I could list the math like this on 100 different sales jobs. You need to figure out what you like. And then go get a job selling it. I met a young lady who was 19 years old when I was in Utah a couple weeks back. She earned over $300,000 in one summer, selling pest control door-to-door. She used some of that money to pay for her degree in entrepreneurship. Now, she has sales experience and education.
The bottom line is that you can make six figures annually in sales and most sales jobs do not require any kind of degree. So before you commit to college, spend your life savings and your parents’ money, maybe consider a job in sales. Go work in sales for a year. If it doesn’t work out, the worst case scenario is that you now have experience.
